


False Alarms

by DesertVixen



Category: The Boy Who Cried Wolf - Aesop
Genre: Alternate Context, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25538671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: In which the Boy who cried Wolf has a reason...
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9
Collections: Juletide 2020





	False Alarms

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silveradept](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/gifts).



When the sheep didn’t come home that evening, their owner went to look for them, and for the useless, lying boy he’d hired to watch them. He had a mind to turn him off with no pay except for a boot in the seat of his pants.

It was what he deserved.

When he reached the meadow, he pulled up short.

There were no sheep.

There was no boy.

There were only the tracks of a very large wolf, and a single shoe left rather pathetically in a pool of blood.

(The sheep were found later in a nearby clearing, mostly unharmed, by a girl driving her geese home.)

There really had been a wolf, but the boy had played too many tricks.

There was general agreement that the sheep’s owner was right, that the lazy boy had got what he deserved, usually leading to complaints about the state of young people these days. The few who disagreed kept it to themselves, except for one or two who suggested they should at least look for the wolves. But one or two voices were not loud enough to drown out so many others, and so no one paid attention.

So the village decided they would move on. A new shepherd boy would be hired, and soon no one would remember a foolish boy who had lied. They had more important things to worry about.

The majority was right about one thing. 

They had more important things to worry about.

They just weren’t the things they thought they should be worrying about.

*** 

Not too far away, in the forest the majority had agreed there was no need to search, the hired shepherd boy with one shoe rode on the back of a very large gray wolf. The wolf knew the way, and the boy could doze and daydream as they traveled over the river and through the woods to their destination.

The plan had worked better than he had thought it would. Red came up with some good ones, he had to admit. The villagers had paid little attention to the hired boy, except to complain about him. They had never realized that he was watching everything and listening to everything,

They had never realized he was remembering everything.

To be fair, he had pretended to be as simple as that kid Simon he had known before, but the villagers had given him no credit.

What fun it had been, he thought, to watch them come running when he cried Wolf!  
“As if I could ever be afraid of you,” he told the wolf affectionately, patting the shaggy shoulder. 

And on they traveled, the boy laughing over the villagers and how utterly stupid they were. One or two had been all right, he allowed, like the girl who drove the geese and Jack who brought his cow to graze at the meadow sometimes. 

But the majority were not all right.

They would get what they deserved,

They would be the ones running soon.

*** 

It was dark when they reached the base of operations, and the boy was glad to reach it. Inside, the wolf curled up by the fire. Red was sitting at her desk, looking over her lists, and glanced up when she heard him come in.

“How many times did it take?”

“Three, just like you predicted. I left the evidence just like you said, so they should be sure that I’m dead.”

“And they didn’t even move to search the forest,” Red said. “Except for a girl driving her geese. She found the sheep.”

He didn’t ask who she had put on watch. Probably the two kids who were stuffing candy in their face every chance they got. It didn’t matter anyway - Red knew he could follow directions, without any breadcrumbs.

“You think our soldiers will have the same experience?” 

Red nodded. She’d learned all her strategy at her grandmother’s knee, and that’s why she had inherited the red cloak of command when all the bad things happened. “I think so. The villagers have grown soft and lazy since they attacked us all those years ago. Now it’s time for them to pay.”

He grinned. “What about my dinner? Can I go with the soldiers and watch?”

“I haven’t decided yet,” she told him. “There’s some pumpkin pie in the kitchen. Then you need to make sure our maps are up-to-date.”

“My favorite,” he cheered as he ran to the kitchen, as Red went back to her lists.

Maybe she would let Peter go with the soldiers tomorrow. After all, without his work they would not have all the information they had. He had earned it.

Tomorrow the villagers would pay for the bad things they had done.

She would see to that.

**Author's Note:**

> So I hope you like this, even if I did finish it late! But I liked the idea of the Boy being a secret agent of some sort, and it just sort of flowed from there.
> 
> Fairy tale/nursery rhyme references include: Red Riding Hood, The Goose Girl, Hansel and Gretel, Simple Simon, Jack and the Beanstalk, and of course, Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater.


End file.
